Overclocker in Focus: Jonas Klar “Mean Machine” Interview

Author: Sdougal

Our series of Overclocker profile videos continues today with a very candid and revealing interview with Jonas, otherwise known to many as Mean Machine. Read on and enjoy a chat with one of the original players from back in the day.

The Interview Transcript

Mean Machine: I’m Jonas, Mean Machine on HWBOT and I’ve been overclocking for quite a while. How do I introduce myself? I don’t know, there’s not much to say about me. Nowadays I work for MSI Notebook Marketing.

HWBOT: What is your educational background?

Mean Machine: Education-wise I don’t really have one to be honest. I failed upper secondary school in Sweden. Or I didn’t fail, I was just bored with it because I was working, writing a lot for Nordic Hardware and doing some video projects. So I was among the first to do video hardware reviews in Sweden and I was an editor at the same time doing a lot of reviews, a lot of overclocking, a lot of hardware videos and events. So that is my background I suppose.

HWBOT: When did you start overclocking?

Mean Machine: I have been overclocking since … maybe. I’m not sure I think I took my first steps in 2003, 2004? I was just some overclocking on air. For me it was all about theoretic performance, the overclocking bit. So I found myself buying CPUs just so I could push them further. Same with memory, I mean back then it was BH-5 DDR 1. And all of a sudden I found myself with an OCZ DDR booster, pushing 4 volts through them with literally just a fan cooling them, not much else. And I think the most fun I had back then was with a Duron Applebred 1,400MHz CPU which did 2.5GHz on air or something. So it became an addiction, I just wanted to push things further and further and that’s how it went.

In 2008 I think I stepped into extreme overclocking with GIGABYTE GOOC 2008, I was there. I’m not sure if that was the first GOOC, but I was in the contest and from there on out I did some overclocking for a few years, with liquid nitrogen for fun mostly. I was never very competitive but I did some of the GOOC’s and MOA’s because back then I was involved with Nordic Hardware, so sometimes I was covering the events, sometimes I was actually competing whenever there was a spot. So coming from Sweden … and yeah.

HWBOT: What has been your greatest achievement?

Mean Machine: My best moment in overclocking would probably be MOA in twenty..? I don’t even remember which year, that’s how great it was. It was 2010. MOA 2010 I managed to qualify second in the European MOA finals. Actually, funny thing, I don’t remember it that much for the overclocking, as much as I actually hooked up with my then girlfriend afterwards because I brought here to the event so that was a funny moment there.

Back then Elmor and ME4ME, which were the two main Swedish overclockers that I would have liked to team up with, they had already teamed up because they direct qualified because they won the previous finals the years before. So I was like ah … got to bring someone else. And the rest of the overclockers, sorry for saying this now, they all hate me anyways – I didn’t feel like there was anybody. It didn’t make any sense to bring anyone else and Elmor and ME4ME… So hey I know this pretty girl, I’ll bring her along. That was a weird thing. And then I think Ryba from Poland he did the same for the next MOA or something. Fun stories. Good memories.

Overclocking-wise, I don’t really have any great memories of overclocking that much. It’s been fun but, there’s no moment that actually stands out that much.

HWBOT: How do you see the overclocking scene today?

Mean Machine: Overclocking is much easier now. It’s not really the challenge it used to be, so I’ve stopped pretty much. A couple of years ago already. When I actually joined MSI the first thing they told me was oh.. you’re not an overclocker anymore. I said thank you very much, what am I doing here then?

Then I found that with newer Core i7 CPUs, the 2500K, 2600K it’s too hard to find a good one, while it’s too easy to reach the limits of them. There’s no challenge in the overclocking anymore. Before with say, Gulftown there was a lot of things you could tweak and I find it more fun when you can cool them a bit more. I mean when there’s a cold bug, it’s a silly thing, but it’s more extreme when you are running at minus 190, compared with minus 30 or 60 or whenever the Sandy Bridge CPUs and Haswells start failing. So I don’t know…

HWBOT: How we can we improve overclocking?

Mean Machine: How to improve overclocking? It’s nothing I have given thought to because I am so far into some imaginary retirement, as if there was something to retire from to begin with. I don’t really know, but if there’s a challenge anywhere it might be more fun. But right now you can bin CPUs in a matter of minutes rather than finding the limits of your CPU after a couple of bench sessions rather than five minutes. I don’t know. I don’t really have a good answer about how improve overclocking if I’m honest.

HWBOT: Your advice to someone just getting started?

Mean Machine: For those starting in overclocking I would probably say, just have fun. Do things just for fun. This is a hobby which is going to cost you a lot of money, just don’t let anyone suck the fun out of it. If you think it’s fun, go for it. Just invest in it. But you will never make money off of it. Maybe that’s one thing to remember from the get go. Furthermore I would say join the events, meet people. It’s fun. It’s the people that make the community I suppose.

HWBOT: What do you think about Taiwan?

Mean Machine: Well I live in Taiwan. I’ve been here since September 2014. Taipei is a great city, well it’s not a great great city, but it’s a city. Coming from the woods outside of Stockholm Sweden, for me it’s more of a question of, hey let’s try something different. Let’s step out of my comfort zone. So moving into the bustle of Taipei, I mean it’s an interesting place to be. The reason I’m here is the hardware industry. I’m not very impressed with Taipei as much as I thought I’d be. It’s a change and that is what I was looking for.

2 year and 1 months ago –
Nice interview again :)
These days its not so boring as he mentioned. He must try few chips from AMD - there is to tweak not only CPU, but APUNB, iGPU, bclk jumps and bclk "blacks"deads, CB and CBB also. And Skylake is good step from Intel also. Todays is more difficult tweak the memery than example 5-7 years ago

2 year and 1 months ago –
I think pushing the limits with air and water is the future, you can't crank up the settings and play Fallout or Skyrim while topping up the LN2 in your bedroom, think of the smoke!
Extreme overclocking is just there to show how far hardware can go but the real skill is overclocking in a practical way that can benefit everyone.
I could see future ROG boards being sold with water blocks already attached to the chipset and VRM's, be glad when you can but decent sized rads on all in one coolers too.